Stardust reserve?

I use it pretty much as soon as I get it.

Stardust is by far the easiest resource to obtain, so I spend it without much remorse...

Besides, not preparing for future events / releases / balance changes is a good way to make sure I always have some sort of goal to work towards.

I power up as I go. But mostly on my succesful gym defenders like Blissey, Snorlax, Dragonite, Gyarados. Some attackers like Espeon, Alakazam, Exeggutor, Venusaur, Gengar, Machamp. I evolve my high IV,cp eevees and keep the Vapes and Jolteons if they have good moves. I will admit, I have no patience and I am impulsive and spend my dust asap lol.

I power up what I fancy and don't worry too much about my reserves. I've been doing so since I started playing. I don't see the point of holding your present fun in expectation of future fun

I try to keep over 500k in dust always...(ranged from 500-1.0 mil I think before I started using it).

I mainly only power up defenders so it's easier to stock up if played that way.

The main benefit is if you hatch a great IV Snorlax, Dratini, etc...and you need more defenders, you can instantly get a viable defender to start earning coins/dust the next day.

I've done this with mostly Rhyhorns (desert biome), but would work with any mon.

As someone else mentioned, if powerup costs ever became half price in an event, you'd wish you had more so you can use it on special projects, etc...

If you don't play hardcore (sit at lured stops all day and grind), it's very hard to get 100k in dust quickly to even power up 1 mon.

At this point, I still need defenders so until I get 12 solid ones (very very high CP), I'd probably keep saving dust for them before I invest in more attackers.

I've only invested in 2 attackers up to level 30 so far (Venusaur (RL/PB - very early on to deal with Vaporeon/Rhydons) and C/SoB Exeggutor.

At higher levels, keeping your max CP defenders maxed out isn't hard since levels take so long now.

I had 250k saved before gen2 release (the aprox cost of powering up a hatched mon to the max of my level, just in case I hatched another high iv Snorlax or Chansey for example)

But when gen2 released with new moves and after seeing the dust I have spent on mon like Alakazam, Poliwrath, Flareon and Charizard became not the optimal movesets anymore I decided to save more and only power up top tier mon like Snorlax, Blissey, Dragonite, Vaporeon...lately I have only have used 150k to power up my shiny Gyarados to the max.

I have 765k at this point saved and won't spend any until gym rework that is coming. It does not ruin any fun for me saving it because I know I will be able to spend it on a better way when I know who will be better attackers and defenders after the update.

At this point I am on "stable" 11 gyms since 2 weeks ago, I have no need of spend on any more attackers or defenders. Plus it will be pretty fun for me doing a crazy session of something like 1.5M dust power ups on the near future :D

At the end I think there is no correct way of spending dust, everyone has their choices, but those who spend it as soon as they get just imagine a 90-100%IV Blissey or Snorlax pops up at you one day, I would be very disappointed if I can't bring to a decent level on that same moment to start earning coins and dust. This is the main reason why some of us save good amounts of dust and candies.

I believe many people don't understand what happens in events.

Events give players the opportunity to gather resources in less time/effort
(or more resources with same time/effort as usual).

Candies events offered 6 candies for catch instead of 3, and 2x buddy candies for distance walked (4x during halloween).
Double dust/experience doubled such rewards, exc...

So, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think events will ever be like:
''for 7 days you will be able to power up at half candy/dust cost'' OR ''egg distances get halved for 7 days''.

PoGo Events are just like miracles:...a blind person became able to see: MIRACLE!
Yeah, but he already had EYES!
A person unable to walk...all of a sudden started to walk: MIRACLE! But he already had LEGS!
For people who had a whole hand cutted (or born without), there is no hope for the hand to grow back, there is not such a miracle!

So there are basic/starting situations to consider some can/others can't be changed.

I'm sorry to be such a Shieldon Cooper, but I'm just trying to make people more conciuos about what they can expect...and of course, steal you a laughter...

I used to set a goal of maintaining 500K dust and spending any dust above that. That kept me entertained and also kept me with a pile of dust. However now that I do not really need anymore defenders it is getting kind of hard to find ways to spend it. I'm builing some offensive guys beyond what is advisable and I've found this fun too.

My guess is that some are building stockpiles just because they are running out of stuff to spend wisely on combined with upcoming expected changes.

So as I have gotten higher in levels, I am at 32 now, it takes a lot longer to be able to power up the mons a want to. I have about 16 that I really like to use. That being said, I have started to store more dust because of it. My high water mark was 350k but I evolved a 96 Gyarados with DT/C and sunk about 65k to power up to 2957. My advice, use it on the mons the really like to use.

At level 32 it took me more than 250K in dust to power up all my favorites the 2 levels that I was allowed. That left me with no dust to develop any new ones. So, I decided to start hoarding. I built to 500K, then spent 250. I built to 750K, then spent 250. Now I'm building to 1.25M and when I hit that I'll spend about 500K.
Collecting dust isn't that hard at higher levels. It takes 1.25M in XP to go from level 34 to 35. That means you can easily collect 1 M in dust without an event, but with your daily bonuses and catches.
Realize that it also takes a lot more dust to keep your top mons at their peak levels. My top 12 take 8K per powerup, and 2 powerups each time. That's 192K right there. Then there are a few others that I'll bring up. MY 500K will go fast.
Then, if I hatch a really nice egg, say a 98IV Larvitar, it takes 145K dust to bring it to level 35.5 Tyranitar.
So yes, I hoard dust, but for specific reasons.

I cant keep more than 100k and usually its much less

Until hearing about the potential gym rework, I used dust as soon as I got it.

Since hearing of the gym rework, i have only powered up defenders and a handful of attackers.

I have 1.9m dust, on level 35 now, I have a team of 10 attackers at levels 30-36.5 that I use for taking out gyms once I drop below 10 defenders in them..my top defenders are all at 36.5. I keep the dust now for mons that are 96% or higher. I am looking to have enough dust to get 10 attackers from lvl 20 to lvl 30 and 10 defenders to above lvl 30 if there is another major change and my crew all get nerfed and other I don't have above level 20 at the moment get buffed

I wish I could keep a reserve, but I like to power up as I go. I live in a rural dead zone (nothing spawns here EVER, nearest pokestop 2 miles away), so stardust is hard to get. Just leveled up to 32, can't wait to power up my best mons.

Have a couple good attacker and defenders, so i can save it up. Have always spare defenders, because 90% get kicked out in a day.